Nandigram: Trinamool alleges 10 booths 'captured' by BJP, lodges complaint with EC

Kolkata: During the second phase of polling on Thursday, TMC demolished the tall claims of BJP that the former could not field booth agents in 300 polling booths, the party said they were present in 354 and had raised complaints for "10 specific booths".

Derek O'Brien, Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP, tweeted: "Trinamool booth agents ROCK SOLID in 354 booths in #Nandigram. We have registered complaints for 10 specific booths. All attempts by CRPF to influence/intimidate voters not working. People determined to have @MamataOfficial as their MLA."

Suvendu Adhikari, Trinamool turncoat and BJP candidate, had first said TMC had lost its ground in Nandigram and could not field agents in 100 booths to the local and national media. Later, he said TMC had failed to post agents in 300 booths before the local and national media. Trinamool leaders said this was a blatant lie and showed his nervousness. Trinamool had given specific complaints about 10 booths where the agents were heckled by BJP outsiders.

Kunal Ghosh, TMC spokesperson, said: "Suvendu's nervousness is evident but the communal instigation is uncalled for. He is playing the communal card and this is a dangerous trend." Ghosh is confident that Mamata Banerjee will win by over 50,000 votes.

Demanding an unconditional apology from Narendra Modi for his statement that Banerjee would contest from another constituency, TMC maintained that "it was a dirty trick" and added that Modi said it out of sheer desperation.

Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, TMC's Rajya Sabha MP, said: "The statement amounts to influencing the voters of Nandigram and gives a message to them that as Banerjee is not happy with you, she might contest from some other seat and when such a statement comes from a person holding an important position, it is deliberately done to confuse the people."

Trinamool leaders are confident that Mamata Banerjee will win the seat by a landslide victory. "BJP had tried all sorts of nasty tricks but the people of Nandigram stood by TMC and foiled their attempts to create trouble," Roy said.

He added that in Dadpur under Keshpur Assembly seat, Uttam Dolui, a party supporter had been killed by BJP outsiders and after the incident, all of them fled.

Questioning the impartiality of the Election Commission, Yashwant Sinha, former Finance minister who recently joined TMC said: "The EC had the list of all the sensitive booths. Despite having that, it did not work impartially."

He said the Centre should publish the file that would show under what circumstances it had rolled back the decision to bring down the interest rate in small savings.

"It is really funny that the Finance minister tweeted and described it as an 'oversight'. It cannot be the case as the Finance ministry does not function so callously," he said, adding he was confident that after the elections, there would be a cut on interest which had been kept in abeyance in view of the ensuing polls."

O'Brien said the party was not concerned about winning the Nandigram seat as it was a foregone conclusion that Mamata Banerjee would win it by a thumping majority but they were worried about keeping "democracy in place".

He added: "We have reports from the ground and from professionals that Banerjee has won Nandigram and we will win Bengal polls too and do better from what we did in 2019. However, we are contemplating to move the Election Commission based on the complaints raised by Banerjee on a few booths in Nandigram, even after we win the polls."

He also challenged Modi and Shah to contest Assembly polls in Bengal. Speaking on the rollback on the interest rate, he said: "It looks like the Centre is running a circus and not good governance."